Further Reflections on Oracle Analytics and The Gartner Magic Quadrant

Several months ago, I wrote an article about "Reflections on the Gartner Magic Quadrant", based on my personal thoughts on having been through the process of completing the Gartner Magic Quadrant survey for Analytics and Business Intelligence solutions. Here at Inoapps we are in the unique position of being very heavy users of the Oracle Analytics Cloud Service (OACS), as well as delivering a wide range of analytics solutions to our customers.

When I completed the Gartner survey (from the perspective of us, Inoapps, as an end user) it was interesting to note that many of the Gartner questions focused on the aspects of Self-Service, Data Science and Advanced Analytics. My comment at the time was that although these areas were of interest, in reality they were of limited use to the typical Business Intelligence user, who in our experience is more traditionally a consumer of pre-packaged content, centrally provisioned.

The topic has come back to light due to two developments that took place in the last few weeks; firstly, it was Oracle Openworld London, as well as the Oracle Analytics Summit for partners and customers, and secondly, the results of the latest Gartner Analytics Magic Quadrant were made public.

Taking Oracle Openworld and the Analytics Summit to begin; kudos goes to the Oracle team. In a very short space of time, they have transformed their offering from an acceptable, "run of the mill" BI solution, perhaps a little long in the tooth, into a new solution offering that provides simplicity, clarity and a very compelling proposition.

Session after session explored the new Machine Learning ML) and Data Science capabilities, embedded in the Oracle database and analytics suite. The latest iteration of Data Visualisation Cloud Services will enable the outcomes from the ML and Automated Intelligence (AI) capabilities to be presented to the user community, enabling "Citizen Data Scientists" to carry out activities that have traditionally been the preserve of PhD students. And the launch of the Oracle Analytics for Applications suite represents a solution to a problem that has been burning for a long time.

In addition, here at Inoapps we have noticed a recent change in the perception and ambition of many of our customers, some of whom are now realising the value that can be achieved through the application of Data Science and Analytics techniques onto the data sets that they already possess. Traditional transactional reporting, as typically delivered by OTBI, can be augmented and extended using these advanced capabilities, enabling greater insight and better decision making.

Which leads us onto the other key development of the last few weeks, the publication of the results from the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI. Those that have followed the roller coaster ride that has been the relationship between Oracle Analytics and Gartner over the last few years will know that it has been a painful journey. How pleasing it is, therefore, to see Oracle named in the Visionary classification for Analytics tools. What a turn-around in perception in a relatively short space of time.

The conclusion - the speed of innovation seems to be continuously increasing. Only last summer, Gartner's focus on Data Science and deep analytics appeared to contradict the primary use cases for most consumers of Oracle Analytics. Since then, a shift in customer perception of the importance of data, combined with a tectonic move in the analysts' view of the Oracle Analytics tool means that Oracle appears perfectly placed to meet those customer demands.

Here at Inoapps, we are just about to launch a major upgrade programme to adopt the very latest iterations of these tools and can't wait to work with our customers to deliver this next generation of analytics solutions. Want to learn more, contact info@inoapps.com